White: Nationals, playoff newbies, get a harsh lesson

Oct. 13, 2012
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Gio Gonzalez, handed a 6-0 lead, set the stage for the Nationals' massive pratfall in Game 5 of the Division Series by walking five, giving up three runs and failing to pitch into the sixth inning. / H. Darr Beiser USAT

"Next spring, we'll be young players who have grown up to be veterans and we'll know how to react to the playoff atmosphere," said general manager Mike Rizzo.

Ask the last team that was one strike from eliminating the Cardinals - a seasoned Texas Rangers group that was playing in its second World Series and came back this year as arguably the best team in the American League.

They lasted one playoff game this year after blowing a five-game division lead in the final nine games.

There's an assumption in Washington - one backed up by expert opinions from outside the capital and outside the organization Rizzo has polished into a contender - that they'll be back.

"Five, 10, 15 years," third baseman Ryan Zimmerman said a night earlier when the clubhouse was full of the euphoria that comes from a walk-off, elimination-avoiding victory in front of a crowd that shook Nationals Park.

This game ended in silence. Every whoop and holler of the Cardinals could be heard.

The packed house gradually eased into applause, even having a difficult time mustering their appreciation for a team that accomplished for more than expected.

Surely, that's what this team can build on.

"Not yet ‚?¶ eventually," said Drew Storen, the closer who gave up the final four runs to the Cardinals in the ninth inning.

Storen won't know until next season how he'll react as a 25-year-old closer with a good track record but now gut-wrenching failure on the biggest stage he's experienced so far.

Gonzalez, who walked 12 batters in 10 innings of two starts, reminded that it's not all on Storen. He's right.

It's on all of the Nationals, not to be skewered for a deflating loss but to prove who they are.

A team that for most of the final two nights of the Division Series looked like an unleashed sleeping giant became suddenly vulnerable. Less than a week ago, the Nationals were considered resilient.

Now, they'll have to go this far into next year to prove they're not fragile.

The last three innings of the Nationals' Game 4 victory and the first three innings of Game 5 indicated they had dodged disaster.

Bryce Harper, the teen-aged (for a few more days) wonder suddenly was crushing the ball again. Gonazlez, whose Game 1 jitters belied his 21-win season and nearly cost Washington a game that could have been part of a St. Louis sweep, cruised through three innings of Game 5.

That on top of a spectacular three-inning bullpen strikeout display that polished off Game 4.

They'd escaped the scenario that's ambushed plenty of growing teams: Go on the road, lose a couple of games while you're still in the "Wow, look where we are" stage, season over.

Or so they thought.

Storen was prophetic after Game 4.

"If we would've believed in momentum, we wouldn't have done what we did today," he said.

Yes, how quickly Washington's 12-4 and 8-0 losses were forgotten, just as its stirring 2-1 win Game 4 becomes a playoff footnote.

This is a talented team, but it's also one that hasn't defined itself.

"This really stinks," said catcher Kurt Suzuki. "I definitely felt like we had a team that could go all the way. It's my first time feeling this way. It sucks."

First time.

That was the warning the Nationals received from numerous critics of their decision to shut down pitcher Stephen Strasburg in early September. Don't assume you'll get another opportunity.

"We'll have to remember how this feels and it will make us better for it in the spring," Rizzo said.

As for the Strasburg decision, Rizzo told reporters: "I stand by my decision. We'll take the criticism as it comes."

Nationals manager Davey Johnson has said he's willing to let it all take its course. That from a man with the comfort and/or wisdom that comes with already having won a World Series.

Tell that to the throng that grew increasingly restless as the Cardinals chipped away, seemingly waiting to pull out a sledgehammer from somewhere to finish the job. No big blow like last year's World Series. More of an excruciating, slow torture that will test that learning curve more than even Johnson could have imagined.

Johnson's patient approach is an easy one in June, or even when you score six runs in the first three innings of an elimination game.

Not in this postseason when even the best teams (nobody topped Washington's 98 wins, remember) give reason for worry. It's like the playoffs were made up of 10 wild-card teams.

The Nationals' clincher eerily resembled the Giants' victory to get to the NLCS a day earlier, then it got worse. San Francisco has been to and won a World Series, just like St. Louis.